I used to watch as many games as I could, now I just watch when WVU or Memphis are on the tube.

Mega conferences and lost rivals, not just WVU's and Memphis's, have caused me to lose my interest.

No, ****** games have.

Were my home teams not the Ravens and Maryland, I would prefer CFB. As it is I still love Saturdays filled with TV games. The sheer number of viewable games almost ensures that we'll see a couple terrific nail-biters.

What annoys me, however are:

1. The growing usage of weird uniforms instead of the classic togs of the schools.

2. The heavy handed ways that the SEC tries to stay on top. The new CF Playoff should include only conference champions rather than SEC teams looking for "do-overs". That way the regular season games would continue to have the same drama as last year's Auburn-Alabama classic.

It's still a great spectacle.

I am losing interest in paying ridiculous amounts of money for a cable TV package with a ridiculous amounts of commercials.

With or without realigment, I am ready to cut the cord and only watch my favorite team when it is on free tv.

"1. The growing usage of weird uniforms instead of the classic togs of the schools."

This. I remember A&M wearing those same aTm helmets on Thanksgiving, watching them on TV sitting at the feet of my father's chair the year he came home from Nam. THAT is tradition. Not that Arena League crap Mizzou wears.

(05-01-2014 09:35 AM)ken d Wrote:  No.

I have been watching college football for 60 years, and the only constant during that time has been change. Realignment causing a lack of interest? There are entire message boards devoted almost exclusively to discussions about realignment. What else would we talk about during the summer - golf?

For those who are losing interest, just which golden age of college football would you have us return to? The one where there were six major conferences, and schools like Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State dominated the sport? Or the one where the BCS did not yet exist, and the sport was dominated by schools like Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State?

Maybe you'd like to go all the way back to the days when the "national champion" was picked before any bowl games were played, and the sport was dominated by schools like Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State. Or my personal favorite time, when schools didn't have limits on scholarships, and some schools had 110 or more players on scholarship. Back then, players played both ways - offense and defense - so roughly 80 of those kids rarely saw the field. Back then, things were so different that the sport was dominated by schools like Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio State.

No. I haven't lost interest yet.

Yep. 10 games a year were plenty enough without an exhibition game at the end of the regular season.

(05-01-2014 12:43 PM)Proud Bammer Wrote:  "1. The growing usage of weird uniforms instead of the classic togs of the schools."

This. I remember A&M wearing those same aTm helmets on Thanksgiving, watching them on TV sitting at the feet of my father's chair the year he came home from Nam. THAT is tradition. Not that Arena League crap Mizzou wears.

I don't agree with you.

Baylor have completely re-branded as a program in the last five years - and it was necessary. Baylor have loads of history - but after an extended run of poor on-the-field play it was time to reboot the entire setup.

Those old green and gold uniforms were associated with failure and disappointment. History is sometimes a very bad thing.

It's all about perspective. "Tradition" betrays many long-time members of FBS.

Illinois is another great example of a school that desperately needed to ditch the past. Their new brand looks sleek and offers some visual separation from their recent history near the bottom of the B1G (excluding the season when Juice went off and they made a Rose Bowl - which they lost handily).

That's a valid opinion; the "combat" uniforms (what a godawfully stupid brand) and such just incite my bitter hatred of Phil Knight and all his works.

I'm looking for escapism: Those boring numbered helmets vs. the ancient AU or LSU logos. Hell, I want to go back to wearing crimson vs. Tennessee orange and Auburn blue, none of this white-uniforms-for-TV crap.

As for Baylor, in my feeble brain no fancy new uniforms will ever blot out Dave Bliss saying "blame it on the dead guy."

I watch far fewer non-ECU games now than I did 5 years ago. Not sure it's directly related to realignment, but I'm sure that's part of it. I probably watched more non-ECU college basketball this year than non-ECU college football and that's never been the case before.

I used to rarely watch NFL and mostly only college football of all sorts. I am the exact opposite now due to several reasons and some to do with being disgusted with realignment.

I watch Miami's games on ESPN3 and the midweek #MACtion games at the sportsbar and then a lot of NFL. Between Fantasy Football and the NFL still broadcasting games on free broadcast TV, I've become completely tuned into the NFL when I wasn't before. If you are a cord-cutter, NFL is a huge draw and will become even more so with Thursday Night Football on CBS. I will also be watching college hockey on CBS Sports for $15 with SkitterTV.

It's stupid spending money on cable TV for channels like SEC, PAC12, Big Ten channels that I never watch. I already get more sports than I can possibly watch without becoming a 24/7 couch potato.

(05-01-2014 03:04 PM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I used to rarely watch NFL and mostly only college football of all sorts. I am the exact opposite now due to several reasons and some to do with being disgusted with realignment.

I watch Miami's games on ESPN3 and the midweek #MACtion games at the sportsbar and then a lot of NFL. Between Fantasy Football and the NFL still broadcasting games on free broadcast TV, I've become completely tuned into the NFL when I wasn't before. If you are a cord-cutter, NFL is a huge draw and will become even more so with Thursday Night Football on CBS. I will also be watching college hockey on CBS Sports for $15 with SkitterTV.

It's stupid spending money on cable TV for channels like SEC, PAC12, Big Ten channels that I never watch. I already get more sports than I can possibly watch without becoming a 24/7 couch potato.

I too have been watching more NFL; just wish the Bengals could get ouf the first round. Alignment has something to do with it.

I just can't find excitement in the NFL. Maybe if I lived in Charlotte and went to the games I'd follow it more closely. I barely followed CFB before I started going to ECU games, outside of following ECU and Tennessee to a small extent. If I lose interest in CFB outside of ECU there will be a lot more time to go fishing on Saturdays.

We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

(05-01-2014 05:55 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Who are your main rivals anyway? I searched and found Ivy league schools, Navy, UConn and Cincy. I thought y'all were rivals with Maryland and WVU?

(05-01-2014 09:13 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  As someone who has watched CFB with a passion for over 30 years I have grown sick of it the past couple years.

I loved the product most of my life for many of the reasons the OP stated, but in the past few years it is just not the same for me. I would liken my feelings to CFB to much like a fan of a music group who liked them when they are an Indy band but not the same after the made it big and became too commericalized. Much like that Indy band, CFB is no longer "about the music"... or should I say football. I am sick of the way ESPN covers the sport--- sick of hearing this team matters and others don't, sick of hearing about Power 5 or Group of 5, sick of hearing about Tebow/Johnny Football/whoever is next, sick of talks of unioninzation and giving more benefits to the athletes etc.

It just isn't fun anymore.

I agree with most of this. Right now it's still fun for me but that can change quickly with realignment and with even more consolidation of power by the P5. E$PN in particular is annoying. They've turned into a blog. And a crappy one at that.

It seems like a lot of people's objections are more about the coverage surrounding the sport instead of the product itself. For me, I stopped watching ESPN outside of live sporting events years ago and haven't missed it at all. In fact, it's actually boosted my enjoyment of college football.

(05-01-2014 06:00 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 05:55 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Who are your main rivals anyway? I searched and found Ivy league schools, Navy, UConn and Cincy. I thought y'all were rivals with Maryland and WVU?

Rutgers really doesn't have rivals because they haven't been good at any sports, ever.

(05-01-2014 06:00 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 05:55 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Who are your main rivals anyway? I searched and found Ivy league schools, Navy, UConn and Cincy. I thought y'all were rivals with Maryland and WVU?

Army is the closest thing Rutgers has to a rival. Princeton, Columbia, Lehigh, Lafayette and Colgate were Rutgers' rivals prior to the 1A-1AA split. There were some good rivalries developing in the Big East before realignment brought them to an end.

(05-01-2014 06:00 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 05:55 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Who are your main rivals anyway? I searched and found Ivy league schools, Navy, UConn and Cincy. I thought y'all were rivals with Maryland and WVU?

Our longest running rival was Princeton. We played every year in every sport for about 100 years. Princeton began ending all the annual games in the 1960s once it became apparent to them that they weren't going to be able to beat us anymore. All of our oldest rivals were privates and the academies.
We came late to the game of big time sports. Back when D1 was split into A and AA, we almost ended up in AA. Little k own fact: Rutgers is one of the oldest colleges, but it is the youngest state flagship public university. For most of our existence we were a private and then a land grant. Even after we entered the BE, the older alumni considered OOC games against Army and Colgate to be more important than conference games.
In the old BE I'd say Temple was our closest rival. We both were football only members with all our other sports in the A-10. We both sucked at footbal. The two schools are close together. It made for a good rivalry of the bad teams.
In the new BE most people would say it was Sarah Cuse. But that was only in football and NO scuzacuse fan would ever admit we were their rival. I personally believe we had a better rivalry with UConn. Too bad we are leaving them behind.
Going into the BIG most RU fans would say it is state Penn. But no nitt would agree. And the series are all very one sided. I'm betting that Md becomes our big one. Just give it some time.

(05-01-2014 09:15 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 06:00 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  

(05-01-2014 05:55 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  We made the BIG, so no. We will now have some of the best and most tradition rich college sports teams coming through NB/Pway on a regular basis. There isn't a Rutgers fan out there that not still pinching themselves to make sure this is all real.
If we were stuck back in the American with UConn, Temple and a bunch of former CUSA teams that we had little in common and little history with, then yes. Nothing against the teams there now, but ALL of the original members and our traditional rivals were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Who are your main rivals anyway? I searched and found Ivy league schools, Navy, UConn and Cincy. I thought y'all were rivals with Maryland and WVU?

Rutgers really doesn't have rivals because they haven't been good at any sports, ever.

The CYO schools are all gone. No BCU, no orange balls, no spit, no hillbilly U, we even moved on. Your left with Temple and a bunch of southern former CUSA schools that you have nothing in common with. Knock us all you want. Who's your big rival going to be now?